Harare Council Blames Arrears for Service Delivery Woes, Launches Debt Amnesty Drive

Harare City Council says unpaid arrears of over ZiG 8.4 billion are crippling service delivery and has launched a debt amnesty drive to boost revenue and restore essential municipal services (image source)

HARARE — The Harare City Council has attributed persistent service delivery failures to mounting unpaid debts, revealing that more than ZiG 8.4 billion is owed to the municipality. City officials warned that the arrears are severely undermining the council’s ability to maintain basic services across the capital.

Mayor Jacob Mafume told a Town House briefing that residents account for roughly 80% of the outstanding debt, with businesses and government agencies making up the remainder. He said some liabilities date back more than a decade, creating sustained cash flow constraints that have affected operations ranging from waste collection to road maintenance.

“Revenue collection is central to service delivery,” Mafume said, adding that the council aims to achieve an 80% revenue collection rate by 2026 as part of a phased financial recovery plan. To encourage repayments, the municipality has launched a time-bound debt settlement initiative offering a 20% discount to residents who clear outstanding balances between January 19 and February 13. The programme also includes incentives for payments made in foreign currency and special provisions for diaspora remittances.

Mafume said a recent commercial sector blitz yielded encouraging results, but stressed that deeper systemic reforms are needed to restore fiscal stability. A key pillar of the recovery strategy is the full deployment of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which will integrate accounting, procurement and billing into a single, auditable platform.

(image source)

The mayor said the ERP system, which costs between US$360,000 and US$500,000 annually to maintain, is expected to strengthen financial controls and reduce corruption. “The systems have been manipulated. Super users have gone in to take money and create accounts,” Mafume said, adding that the council intends to prosecute individuals implicated in alleged financial abuse. He noted that previous weaknesses allowed unauthorised access to municipal finances, with reports suggesting that nearly 1,000 people had authority to open accounts — a governance lapse the new controls are meant to eliminate.

Mafume acknowledged that Harare’s service delivery challenges are complex, citing historical underfunding, central government interference and politically appointed management structures that, he said, have at times undermined professional municipal leadership. He urged residents to take advantage of the debt amnesty and support transparency measures that would allow the council to prioritise investment in housing, infrastructure and essential services.

Analysts say the success of the recovery plan will depend on sustained political will, firm action against internal malfeasance and the council’s ability to balance revenue collection with social sensitivity for vulnerable households. Harare now faces a critical test: convert arrears into resources for renewal, or risk further deterioration of the services residents rely on daily.